I’m just curious why the queue isn’t designed to skip over queued items that have missing components to an item that does not? And while on the subject, why is staggering orders a thing? Why isn’t it that I can allocate my various production facilities to do just one thing over and over again rather than having them all draw from a queue that can get stuck waiting for a extractor or rig etc.?
Why isn’t space smarter? Why is it so tedious? Is this how the game is intended to be played?
Recurring orders hasn’t really fixed any of the actual problems with the production mechanics, it’s simply put a little band-aid on it. That is made worse knowing a new feature was rolled, in a feature that has had numerous excellent suggestions for fixes and updates, that barely scratched the surface. And worse still by the reality that a feature roll meant that there were developers actually looking at and manipulating the source for that feature.
This is a game of micros. You can set currency orders and shipment requests to four digits after the decimal (ICA 1.0050), but you can’t prioritize a facility for one purpose without organizing the papers in your inbox in a special way and making sure that order is never altered. You can fly from star system to star system setting precise calculations in order to maximize fuel efficiency by traveling when two orbital bodies are at their closest approach, but you can’t cancel that trip and simply turn around if your mind or circumstances change.
The player base could have dealt with the previous system for longer if there was hope for a meaningful attempt at fixing the major issues with gameplay, and really it is only about gameplay, but they likely won’t respond well to half or nil attempts like most game developers these days put out.
It’s unfortunate too, because this game has so much potential, I’ve had a lot of fun, but that fun has been laden with annoyance and frustration over the absence of the simplest of things, like the ability to search for a system in the map without having to click on every single system just to find the one you want. Unless, that’s how the game is intended to be played.